Budget boost for NHS to tackle wait times welcome but EDs left ‘waiting’ on more details

11 December 2024

While a boost in funding to improve healthcare in Wales is a move in the right direction, the Draft Budget released this week lacks significant detail and leaves Emergency Departments out in the cold as seasonal demand surges.

That’s the message from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine after Wales’ Cabinet Secretary for Finance, former Health Secretary and Former First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS, delivered the Draft Budget in the Senedd yesterday (10 December 2024).

Despite promising millions for the health service in Wales, the Draft Budget for 2025-26 failed to include any additional support for Urgent and Emergency Care this winter as temperatures continue to plummet, and the inevitable spike in demand starts to hit.

Related to the NHS, the Finance Secretary’s key pledges were:

• £435m increase to support a range of additional allocations to the NHS, including activity to continue reducing the longest waiting times, improving timely access to care and treatment, and will support a 2025-26 pay award for the workforce

• £175m to invest in NHS infrastructure and digital technology 

• More than £20m to go towards the education and training budgets for the NHS workforce. This includes supporting the expansion of the North Wales Medical School and additional postgraduate medical and dental training places 

It comes as the latest A&E performance data revealed, one in seven people (10,085) waited 12 hours or more in Emergency Departments in Wales in October 2024, while nearly one in four patients (16,082) waited eight hours or longer.

And follows RCEM’s own recent ‘snap survey’ of ED Clinical Leads (senior doctors in charge of patient safety) conducted last month which showed in Wales:

• 89% had patients being cared for in corridors  

• 67% had patients being care for in ambulances outside the department 

• 89% felt patients are coming to harm because of the conditions they are currently experiencing 

• While 78% aren’t confident that their department will cope well this winter 

Dr Rob Perry, RCEM Vice President for Wales, said: “We commend the government’s commitment to rebuilding the NHS for the people of Wales through the Draft Budget, which it says will ‘prioritise’ reducing waiting times for patients.

“However, we have been left waiting for more detail on whether any of this money will go towards tackling the longest and most dangerous waits in Emergency Departments which we know are associated with excess deaths.

“Despite the budget offering a range of investment pledges for the coming financial year, there is nothing in it aimed at addressing the immediate crisis occurring inside our Emergency Departments right now.

“Patients are lining our corridors, receiving so called ‘corridor care’ on trolleys. A situation that will only be exacerbated in the weeks and months to come. Our own recent snap poll gave an insight into the level of pressure currently being experienced, and just how worried ED clinicians are.

“This should be the loudest alarm bell to the government.

“While we remain committed to working with the Wales government to #ResuscitateEmergencyCare, we urge them to follow the Westminster government’s lead by focusing on the longest ED stays as winter really starts to bite.”

The budget also provided £3m towards improving healthcare for women, £3m to support the hospice sector, and an additional £20 million to support the Welsh government’s flagship childcare offer. 

The Draft Budget will be scrutinised by Members of the Senedd before a final vote in March 2025.